Leaving Saturday - Ahhhhh!

[3greatsons]

Okay, I have mixed emotions as you can tell. We leave THIS SATURDAY! Ahhhhhh!! We will be traveling with 2 families, and we have 5 day hopper passes to use from Monday - Friday. The group is:
myself - Disney lover - 39
DH - skeptic - 42
DS - just lookin' for girls - 14
DS's friend - same - 15
DS - loves thrill rides - 10
DS - not a rider, major athlete - 8
Our friends:
Mom -40
Dad - 40
DS - 12 - never been
DS - 9 - never been
We've rented a 5 bdrm house off property for all of us to be more cost effective. I know, I know, sorry! I am always a huge trip planner, and I want this to be an extra special trip since my friends' kids have never been, but I just haven't taken the time to do this right, so I REALLY need help!
Which parks, which days, what "must- dos", etc. HELP all you Disney fanatics!! I really value your opinions. Thanks.

 

[hookedonthemagic]

Okay, I have mixed emotions as you can tell. We leave THIS SATURDAY! Ahhhhhh!! We will be traveling with 2 families, and we have 5 day hopper passes to use from Monday - Friday. The group is:
myself - Disney lover - 39
DH - skeptic - 42
DS - just lookin' for girls - 14
DS's friend - same - 15
DS - loves thrill rides - 10
DS - not a rider, major athlete - 8
Our friends:
Mom -40
Dad - 40
DS - 12 - never been
DS - 9 - never been
We've rented a 5 bdrm house off property for all of us to be more cost effective. I know, I know, sorry! I am always a huge trip planner, and I want this to be an extra special trip since my friends' kids have never been, but I just haven't taken the time to do this right, so I REALLY need help!
Which parks, which days, what "must- dos", etc. HELP all you Disney fanatics!! I really value your opinions. Thanks.

Oh, my dear girl, failing to plan is planning to fail! Just kidding. If you'd like a fool proof plan, I'd run to the closest bookstore and grab the Unofficial Guide to WDW by Bob Sehlinger. It's my personal favorite. There are detailed and I mean detailed, touring plans and most importantly, they work.
As far as days and parks, here's my suggestions:
Mon- Epcot
Tues - MGM
Wed- AK
Thurs-MK
Fri- EP/MK
That's at least what I'd do. Now, I have to be honest, I'm not taking best park, worst park scenarios into consideration at all, I'm just giving you the order in which our family likes to visit the parks. We always do Epcot first because it is a little more educational and once you've gone to MK, it's all blown to bits. If you want to do it by best park/worst park then I'd do:
Mon- MGM
Tues-MK
Wed-AK
Thurs-there's really not a good choice according to the book
Fri-EP

Staying off site isn't so bad - we did it once under the same circumstances as you. I would definitely work in some time though where all of you guys can have some separate time - after all you do still want to be friends when you get home!

As far as rides not to be missed - here are my favs:
MK
Buzz
The mountains
Philharmagic
Haunted Mansion
EP
SOARIN' (OH MY - IT'S SOOOO GREAT!)
MGM
Tower of Terror
Rock n roller
Muppetvision
Beauty & the Beast show
AK
Festival of the Lion King
Everest

I hope I helped a little! If you want to know anything else, let me know!
Have a great trip! We'll be there Wed. Do you have your limegreenmickey to show that you're a DIS member?

 

[Jrabbit910]

Your leaving on saturday.... dont worry about anything... why stress out before you go on vacation... THE ONLY PLAN YOU SHOULD HAVE IS TO HAVE A GOOD TIME AND TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES! Again, your on vacation... just enjoy and go w/ the flow..
RELAX.... go to the boards in the parks and find out when parades are playing or the wait times on rides and just take it from there. Have a great time. Nothing will go wrong unless you let it

 

[summfam4]

We are leaving tomorrow with you and staying off-site. I have planned just about every step of our trip and now there may be rain half of our vacation- just goes to show you who really makes the plans! I have decided rain or no rain I'll stick to the plans as far as what days I am in what parks and what ADRs I have, but if things don't go as planned it will still be a great trip with my family.

Sun-AK
Mon-MK
Tues-MGM
Wed-EP
Thurs-whatever we want to see that missed!

 

[MelanieC]

Have a great time!